Some interesting history in an opinion piece of a Texan gun owner in The Washington Post.
This must be the very definition of FUBAR.
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Many Americans, and Texans in particular, have a mythical misconception about the state: In rootin’, tootin’ Texas, this has always been the way with guns. But that simply isn’t true. Until 1870, sure, Texas was part of the Wild West when it came to guns. Yet in 1870, that all changed: The state legislature banned carrying firearms outside the home.
Texas was one of the first states to do so,
leading the way on gun-safety laws into the 20th century. It also banned knives, daggers and other weapons from being carried in public. In the 1920s, Texas quadrupled fines for violations (and sent offenders who couldn’t pay them into prison work gangs), banned automatic weapons altogether and imposed a hefty 50 percent tax on gun sales.
These laws remained on the books until an initial legislative assault in the 1970s. In the early 1990s, the last Democratic governor of Texas, Ann Richards, backed by police, vetoed a bill legalizing concealed weapons. That played a big role in her 1994 downfall when she lost to George W. Bush.
The new Republican governor signed a concealed-carry law in 1995,
saying it would “make Texas a safer place.” Thus was born the unofficial “
Ann Richards rule” in Texas politics: Never oppose bills expanding gun rights.
Other than signing a stand-your-ground law,
Rick Perry, who followed Bush as governor, mostly just talked about guns, when he wasn’t
posing with them. But under Abbott today, and a Republican-controlled legislature, Texans can carry a gun pretty much any place except where a posted sign prohibits it.
You can openly
carry a 9mm pistol at the grocery store, walk into a coffee shop with an AK-47 as long as there’s no sign prohibiting firearms. I can even keep my .45-caliber pistol right in the center console of my truck —
without a license. …
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